Wireless devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), navigational devices, and the like, are often able to generate absolute position data by using, for example, Global Positioning System (GPS) signals or other geo-location signals. Unfortunately, the benefits of such data are not fully realized because attitude information (e.g., pitch, roll and heading) about the wireless device is lacking.
As an example, a handheld navigation device can be considered that provides navigation information such as a map on the device's display. It may be also desirable to provide a user of the device with an arrow on the map pointing in a desired travel direction. The arrow cannot be generated accurately without the wireless device having information about its present orientation or attitude. In this instance, a lack of accurate information about the heading of the device will prevent the device from generating an accurate directional arrow that could help guide a user to a desired location.